BusinessWeek
has the first information on an Intel notebook concept that's purportedly
the thinnest laptop ever built. The machine, which was co-designed by Intel
engineers and a Portland, Oregon design firm called Ziba Design, has a thickness
of only 0.7" (18mm). That's just enough to accommodate a single horizontal USB
port, and it's about as thin as Motorola's Razr cell phone. Intel's
prototype-code-named Metro-also weighs in at just 2.25lbs (1.02kg), despite
having features some might consider luxuries: a secondary LCD display embedded
into the back of the main display shell, a fingerprint reader, and even a
noise-canceling microphone for those Skype calls on the move. The magazine says
Intel hasn't announced an official release date yet, but that "people familiar
with the matter" say an unnamed PC maker intends to start manufacturing the
system later this year.
This looks very similar to
the ultra thin Fujitsu "Q" notebook that's only 0.78" thick. Yes, that's
just a hair smaller than the face of a US nickel. The Fujitsu Q has been out
almost a year already. Great machine and shockingly light at only 2.2 pounds.
)